Weddingbee Blog

I was immediately inspired when I saw some adorable napkin rings over on maya*made. It took some time for me to get on board with the project, because we’re using compostable tableware – including napkins. Wasn’t it kind of silly to make napkin rings for disposable napkins? No. No it was not:

Cute, right? The link above will give you some great instructions, but I modified them just a bit. Here’s how I made them:

These instructions are for making the flowers only. For the “ring” part of the project, I collected empty paper towel rolls for weeks. Then I cut them into 1″ rings and wrapped a 1″ strip of burlap around it. With the burlap held on the cardboard, I stapled the ring to be the approximate size of the napkin rolls – which also happened to be the approximate size of the stapler base. Perfect.

I also made the cover-buttons using a natural linen fabric, and a custom stamp I had made of our save-the-date logo from RubberStamps.net.

Okay, let’s get started. You will need buttons for the center, a thick fabric (I used burlap) for the bottom flower, and a thinner ribbon or other fabric for the top flower. Also scissors, wax paper, and a glue gun.

Cut your ribbon or thinner fabric into strips of approximately 7cm in length. I found it easiest to knock out a whole stack of these at a time. Squeeze a small drop of glue onto the tip of the ribbon, and bring the other tip to meet it. Press firmly. First petal = done.

After you have made six small petals, it’s time to build the flower. Turn your button on its back and squeeze a small drop of glue into the base, right next to the shank. Press the glued tips of the first petal as far into the button as it will go.

Squeeze another drop of glue into the other side of the button’s shank, and press another petal in:

Glue the remaining petals onto the back of the button, estimating equal distance between them, until you have all of them on:

And from the front:

Next, we’ll make the base flower. Cut your strips of burlap (or thick fabric) about 1″ wide, and 8cm long. Squeeze a line of glue on one tip of the burlap, and fold it over onto itself. Using the wax paper, press the two pieces together. The wax paper is important here to keep you from burning your finger. Since the burlap is an open fabric, the glue will be pressed through the holes, and onto the tip of your finger. Ouch.

Once you have made all six petals for the base flower, grab a ring base. Squeeze a circle of glue directly onto the base.

Grab the first three petals. The trick here is to create two “triangles” of petals on top of one another. Space the petals evenly around the circle of glue:

Repeat with the next three petals, on top of those you just glued. You really don’t need a whole glue circle for this part, just dabs where the petals will be. When all the petals are on, squeeze a dollop of glue into the center of the flower.

Grab the top flower you made earlier, and press it firmly into the base flower. The deeper you press it into the base, the fuller the petals will look.

And that’s it! Before long, you’ll have a whole bag of them:

What kind of craft tutorials inspired you? What modifications did you make to fit them in to your plan?